T.J. Rooney: Congress should seize opportunity to cut debt

November 11, 2013

As a political figure, it was easy for me to recognize the way lawmakers let avoidable distractions get in the way of the country's real problems during the fiscal crisis last month. We experienced a crippling government shutdown and only narrowly averted a potentially devastating federal default. This partisanship is no way to govern, as it diverts attention from the country's most pressing economic problem — our soaring national debt.

Fortunately, elected leaders have the opportunity to put last month's debacle behind them and refocus their efforts on restoring order to the nation's fiscal house. As part of the deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling, Washington politicians bought themselves a bit of valuable time by agreeing to convene a conference committee over the budget that will give them the chance to reconcile the House and Senate budgets and provide recommendations for the rest of Congress on how to fund the government for the 2014 fiscal year.

Now is the time to come to an agreement that puts our unsustainable national debt on a sustainable downward path.

Relative to the economy, the national debt is the largest it has been since the immediate aftermath of World War II. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the debt is projected to rise from 73 percent of gross domestic product today to 100 percent of GDP by 2035 and twice the size of the economy by 2065.

These fiscal realities increase the likelihood of a spike in interest, unemployment and inflation rates. Interest payments alone on the debt are expected to balloon to $1.8 trillion in 20 years, crowding out important investments in education, transportation infrastructure, and research and development. That is why I would expect the budget conference committee to make addressing this problem a priority. Pennsylvanians need policy-makers in Washington to confront our debt burden head on before further damage is done.

The state and the nation require leadership — leadership that is willing to listen to the ideas of others and engage in honest, bipartisan discussions with all members of Congress. So you can imagine my optimism when I learned that Sen. Pat Toomey had been named a budget conferee. Sen. Toomey's track record on fiscal responsibility is well documented, and I'm confident he has the ability to help guide these discussions in a productive and helpful direction.

Although the budget conference committee has a wealth of competing priorities to manage, at the very minimum the committee should focus on replacing the federal sequester with more targeted, permanent savings. It is well known that sequestration represents poor short- and long-term economic policy and costs Pennsylvania thousands of valuable jobs.

Ideally, budget conferees would, in addition to addressing the sequester, also put the debt on a downward path by tackling entitlement and tax reform. We must ensure vital social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare are solvent for future generations, and take steps to preserve these entitlement programs while protecting the most vulnerable is of paramount importance. Furthermore, tax reform that broadens the base, lowers rates and simplifies the code would benefit all Americans.

The key to unlocking the full potential of the American economy lies in the conferees' abilities to achieve principled compromise — something I am confident they can do. If the conferees can find common ground on these issues, we can stabilize and reduce the debt as a share of the economy while spurring economic growth. I'm sure that when the conference committee meets again on Nov. 13 they will dig deeper into these problems and realize that they aren't that far apart on solutions that will improve our fiscal outlook in both the near- and long-term.

I stand ready to support Sen. Toomey as he works with other members of the budget conference committee to get the country back on the right economic track. The Campaign to Fix the Debt understands the importance of the conference committee's work and is doing everything it can to help make this process as productive as possible. The campaign is working with Pennsylvanians and members of Congress to see that this valuable opportunity before the budget conference committee is not squandered.

I call on Sen. Toomey to use his place on the conference committee to lead the way on reforms that restore certainty and confidence to the American economy.

T.J. Rooney, a member of the Campaign to Fix the Debt, is a former chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and a former state representative from the 133rd District in the Lehigh Valley.